Thanksgiving trip with the in-laws

So, I'm back from a little vacation, which was nice.  My father-in-law treated my wife and I to a 7-day cruise in the Western Caribbean, during which we visited Belize, Honduras, and two spots in Mexico.  Honestly, I like cruises more for their day at seas more than for their ports (feel too much like part of a herd of cattle with two many time constraints on the port days), so it doesn't matter to me where I am going.  But now, I'm back, trying to get my head back into business planning and sphere of influence cultivating, activities that are much easier to do in the slower part of the real estate calender anyway.

 

The logo in the previous post was pretty well received by the few I bounced it off of, but definitely changed a bit.  The wifey vehemently disliked the handwritten aspect of the words in the card, so I changed that up and managed to get an actual font in there.  Then, my new office manager wanted me to switch the card to the ace of hearts because he felt it might soften up the logo a little bit in a good way, but that's just not able to happen based on the way the file is, so I colored the spade in a light green, which seems to serve the same purpose.  The thing I'm really not sure about is the slogan, so I've made creating a new slogan a competition for my sphere of influence, the winner of whom will get December "Client of the Month" honors and the movie tickets that go with them. :)

 

Let me think...good stories...  Really the only major thing that's happened lately is a huge $1,500 pot in a poker game on the cruise ship that didn't go my way, but I can't even send you the link to the on-line forum that discussed this hand at length because MD-Poker is down for a few days because the building that housed the server (I have no idea what this means) was sold, and now MD-Poker needs to find a new place to call home (somehow a complicated computer matter that must involve more than having an electrical outlet and a cable line).  On the home front, Sara is busy studying biochemistry and we're filling our nights with old episodes of "House, M.D." and "The West Wing"...that, and watching our undersized, 1-year old cat do stupid things like attack his electronic water filter/dish (yes, our cats have an eletronic water thing...don't yours? :) ).  (On a side night, the stupid cat got so into attacking his water thing when we are on vacation that he pulled the power tree that it was plugged into off the wall, meaning that both the water thing and the automatic feeder didn't work for the majority of our trip, and our cats were plenty pissed at us due to hunger by the time we got home. :( ).

 

Well, I've got to shower, run to the post office, hit up the office for a few hours in getting my next mailing ready and out the door, get back home for 20 or so phone calls, and then rest a little for my 11pm soccer game (because 11pm soccer games are the most reasonable kind of games to play, of course).

 

Peace,

Greg

Logo?

Click on the white screen to the right and tell me what you think? :)

Anyway, I will be away from tomorrow (Friday afternoon) until November 26th. My father-in-law is treating Sara and me to a week-long cruise with that side of the family. I must admit that I’m not exactly sure where we are going, but I think it’s somewhere in the western Caribbean…I mean, honestly, if someone else is going to take you on a cruise, you really don’t stop to ask the ports of call before you say, “Yes.” :) All I know is that there is a poker table on board (yes, it’s sad, but I actually called the cruise line to ask them this last week :) ).

Well, that’s it! I wish you a great week of family, food, and friends, in whatever order brings you the most happiness. :)

God bless,
Greg

an energizing week

So, my new office manager has been a very helpful business partner thus far, and I am more and more glad about making the office switch that I made.  One of the things that he has encouraged me to do is to call all of my contacts (I have a list of 288 names, most of whom have received my monthly newsletter and/or infrequent e-newsletter updates over the past year), and to make sure that I am a) not being an unwelcome nuisance in my correspondence with them and b) to ask if they have a "family Realtor."  I am roughly a quarter into getting through the list and it's been a very good experience thus far.  My past experiences with "calling rounds" have been through fundraising when I was a campus pastor, and those were tough calls.  These calls have been far more rewarding relationally, as I really am not asking anyone for anything except for them to think of me when they or their friends are buying/selling real estate.  It's been fun to catch up with people I haven't seen in forever, and going in alphabetical order through the list means that I am talking to family one minute, a former training client the next, a poker player after that, and then an acquaintance from church. :)

 

Meanwhile, Long and Foster just rolled out the Silver Team, a designation for those who have done between 1-3 million of production in a year.  On Monday, I spent the entire day at a Silver Team seminar that really helped me take a hard look at my business plan, something I have not done in a while.  The phone calls I've made lately, plus some of the talks I heard that day have gotten me brainstorming about ways to better reach out to my "sphere of influence."  These are people that I like (many of whom I have worked with on some level, socially or professional), and I want to find more ways to show them that I really do care about them, where they are in life, and how I might be able to better help them get where they are going.  I'm looking to roll out at least 3 events next year, plus build on the contact systems that I already have set up.  Don't get me wrong...my business will never get to a point where I am not doing things to market to people I don't know, but studies have shown that such marketing is 17 times less efficient financially and, worst than that, in my opinion, it is about 100 times less personally rewarding as you are doing it.

 

Okay...I'm in a blabbing mood, so I'm going to cut myself off. :)

 

Peace,
Greg

the dullness of winter :(

So, my string of 12 transactions in 6 months (not to mention 4 rental transactions) was bound to stop at some point (after all, I am still a rookie), and the last month and a half has been slow. I've had more leads in the past two months than the previous months put together, but most of them need some substantial credit help or are in another situation that is going to delay their purchase of a home.

The weird thing about sales is that activity produces more activity most of the time. However, when activity produces nothing for some reason, it gets so hard to get "activity" going again. Think about it this way: a snowball is rolling down hill and picking up more snow along the way. It gets to be a good-sized snowball, but the hill levels off to a plateau, which is now several yards away from the next drop in elevation. Before the snowball was so small that wind could have started it going...now, it is larger and needs more force (eg. like maybe a monkey carrying the snowball the necessary yards :) ) to get going again.



On one level, it's like, "Sweet, I'm a larger snowball." However, it is the addition of more snow that is going to allow me to survive in this industry...

To complicate matters, psychological, when you are in the "downswing," it gets that much harded to be motivated to work. Honestly, this last month, all I've wanted to do is play poker in AC, which I've managed to curb this week until I get my act together again with business.

So, helping my "long-term clients" get to a place in which they can achieve their goals of buying a home is where I currently am, and reminding myself of why I love this profession as much as I can. If I just keep showing people that I am available and that I actually care about helping them, eventually I'll get "rolling" again. :)

Peace,
Greg